Tactics of the Illusionist

Need a little help here for a player in my game. She is playing a gnome illusionist, but has trouble coming up with uses for the more open ended illusion spells. From 1st through 4th level the only illusion spell she consistently uses is Color Spray, which of course is a pretty straight forward attack spell. I thought I might introduce a mentor who will point her in the right direction and help her develop some effective tactics.

That's where you all come in. What I'm looking for is your most ingenious uses of illusionary magic with a focus on 1st and 2nd level spells. Come on. You know you wanna show off how clever you are. Both combat, and social applications are appreciated.

-d

sleepystyle said:

Need a little help here for a player in my game. She is playing a gnome illusionist, but has trouble coming up with uses for the more open ended illusion spells. From 1st through 4th level the only illusion spell she consistently uses is Color Spray, which of course is a pretty straight forward attack spell. I thought I might introduce a mentor who will point her in the right direction and help her develop some effective tactics.

That's where you all come in. What I'm looking for is your most ingenious uses of illusionary magic with a focus on 1st and 2nd level spells. Come on. You know you wanna show off how clever you are. Both combat, and social applications are appreciated.

-d

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Offensively, illusion spells aren't that great. This applies even to the shadow spells.

Color spray will eventually become useless, and it's only replacement is phantasmal killer ... as long as you treat it as a stunning spell and not a death spell.

Mirror image is sweet, along with great invisibility, mislead and another 7th-level spell that makes you appear here when you really are there, but I've found that major image is great for luring enemies to one spot (or scaring them away). They only get a save when they directly interact with the illusion. If their interaction involves surrounding it and poking it with a cold iron bastard sword, that's a good time to drop your fireball.

(It's a good thing major image lasts a few rounds without Concentration.)

I'm not sure if shooting an illusion with an arrow would break the effect.

I haven't played an illusion in like one and a half editions but I used to really enjoy it.

My favorite trick was to use the 1st and 2nd level spells (SIlent image?) to try to distract bad guys.

I'd conjure up an illusionary pit to get a bad guy to move, or phantom lightning bolts to try to draw their attention, or a phantasm goblin to draw an attack.

There is always the illusionary Lady ogre to draw the male ogre's attention if he is on guard duty as well.

The obvious use is to create creatures - but it's not very effective, unfortunately. It could be used to intimidate an opposing force into not attacking ("I'm not fighting a mind flayer!"), but if your enemies decide to attack anyway, an illusionary monster is going to quickly be revealed for what it truly is.

Simple illusions can be used to facilitate an escape - the party ducks down a corridor or into a room and the illusionist creates a wall that hides them from sight. Illusions could also be used to control the battlefield during a fight - walls, flames, pits, etc. can be used to funnel foes in whatever direction the party wants. The effects of some other spells can be duplicated in this way (the various wall spells, for example), as long as the targets don't have enough Spellcraft to recognise which spell was just cast.

I would allow illusions to be used to "distract" an opposing spellcaster, as a sort of cheap counterspell (the caster would have to make a Concentration check to not lose the spell, as detailed in the skill description).

I routinely use silent image to conceal myself in a variety of situations. In a dungeon, I create the image of a wall and stand behind it; in a city, I can hide in an alley behind the image of a trash heap or wagon. The nifty thing is that you can hide the entire party just as well.

I never had the occasion to test this, but I think you could use it effectively to defend yourself against archers; you can choose between creating an illusionary wall (they may decide not to shoot at all, but if they do shoot they'll probably realize it's an illusion) or an illusionary fog (they'll reasonably try to shoot, but they have to guess your square and take 50% miss chance, and will never notice it's an illusion).

If you didn't give up Conjuration, mix some summoned monsters in with your illusionary monsters. Keep 'em guessing.

Also, Summoned Monsters are not an offensive act, so you can do that even while invisible.

Go for subtle effects. Create rocks in the way of people charging you, or disguise the exact location of a tree. Make it look like you have cover when you don't. Male it look like your enemies' fly is open in the middle of combat, or that their shield strap is broken.

You can use silent image to create illusionary footprints. Watch the party follow the illusionary footprints right over the illusionary cover that covers a pit trap.

Here are some brainstorming ideas:

Ghost Sound

- The sound of reinforcements approaching can make an uncertain enemy flee.
- Ethereal fanfare can make your entrance more distinguished
- An "uncouth" sound can embarass a political rival at the most inopportune moments.

Ventriloquism - this is similar to Ghost Sound, but it is your own voice, which can be useful.

- An invisible spellcaster can mislead oppoenents. Sure, his spellcasting makes noise, but is it really coming from where you think it is? (My players hated this one.)
- Lure a chasing opponent down the wrong path
- Make a rival seem to say whatever you'd like him to. Ventriloquism won't change your voice, and it won't make the targets lips move, so you need to pick the right moment for this to work.

Minor Image

- Illusionary obstacles are great for shaping the battlefield. A pit falling open, a wall appearing. For best effect, try to make the illusion fit into the existing terrain (ie, a grass-covered pit falling open in a field)
- Grab the attention of a gathering of people quickly and easily
- An illusionary mist can still obscure sight
- A skeleton or zombie climbing from the grave can frighten the faint of heart
- Illusionary creatures at this level will be no more than momentary distractions, but that moment can be all you need. Direct enemy fire at the illusionary bear you just threw from your "Bag of Tricks", while your friends advance into position.
- The illusion of a hole in the prince's britches can help lower public opinion.
- Making a sword appear rusty can earn you a discount at the market.

IMHO, illusions need to either be a) very subtle or b)very extravagant to work well.

Some tactics.

Make an illusion of a huge monster. Eventually, the creatures will figure out that it isn't real. Now, (or perhps right before than moment) summon one of those types of monsters. Chaos. Fun.

Ventrilliquism (sp?) to make the silent image of yourself sound like you. Now the bad guy sees (an image of) you and hears you. Thinks it's you.

Since illusions have to interact or else be dissapated, make illusions that won't be disbelieved. Mists, fogs, etc.

Want to make a bard useful? Cast some type of creeping mist envelope the bard on the way toward the BBEG, have the bard use his perform skill to feign the most painful death possible.

Cast an illusion to make the armed types seem unarmored, and make yourself look the lik the big bad fighter type.